[269] If the above conception of chaps. ii. and iii. be correct, then there is no need for such a re-arrangement of these verses as has been proposed by Jeremias and Billerbeck. In order to produce a continuous narrative of the progress of the siege, they bring forward iii. 12-15 (describing the fall of the fortresses and gates of the land and the call to the defence of the city), and place it immediately after ii. 2, 4 (the description of the invader) and ii. 5-11 (the appearance of chariots in the suburbs of the city, the opening of the floodgates, the flight and the spoiling of the city). But if they believe that the original gave an orderly account of the progress of the siege, why do they not bring forward also iii. 2 f., which describe the arrival of the foe under the city walls? The truth appears to be as stated above. We have really two poems against Niniveh, chap. ii. and chap. iii. They do not give an orderly description of the siege, but exult over Niniveh’s imminent downfall, with gleams scattered here and there of how this is to happen. Of these “impressions” of the coming siege there are three, and in the order in which we now have them they occur very naturally: ii. 5 ff., iii. 2 f., and iii. 12 ff. [270] ii. 2 goes with the previous chapter. See above, pp. 94 f. [271] ii. 13, iii. 5. [272] See above, Vol. I., Chap. IV., especially pp. 54 ff. [273] ii. 8. [274] _Isaiah xl.—lxvi._ (Expositor’s Bible), pp. 197 ff. [275] Read מַפֵּץ with Wellhausen (cf. Siegfried-Stade’s _Wörterbuch_, sub פּוּץ) for מֵפִיץ, _Breaker in pieces_. In Jer. li. 20 Babylon is also called by Jehovah His מַפֵּץ, _Hammer_ or _Maul_. [276] _Keep watch_, Wellhausen. [277] This may be a military call to attention, the converse of “Stand at ease!” [278] Heb. literally: _brace up thy power exceedingly_. [279] Heb. singular. [280] Rev. ix. 17. Purple or red was the favourite colour of the Medes. The Assyrians also loved red. [281] Read כאשׁ for באשׁ. [282]‎ פלדות, the word omitted, is doubtful; it does not occur elsewhere. LXX. ἡνίαι; Vulg. _habenæ_. Some have thought that it means _scythes_—cf. the Arabic _falad_, “to cut”—but the earliest notice of chariots armed with scythes is at the battle of Cunaxa, and in Jewish literature they do not appear before 2 Macc. xiii. 2. Cf. Jeremias, _op. cit._, p. 97, where Billerbeck suggests that the words of Nahum are applicable to the covered siege-engines, pictured on the Assyrian monuments, from which the besiegers flung torches on the walls: cf. _ibid._, p. 167, n. ***. But from the parallelism of the verse it is more probable that ordinary chariots are meant. The leading chariots were covered with plates of metal (Billerbeck, p. 167).